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Kamil Idris

Dr. Kamil Idris is the former director of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a global organization that offers intellectual property (IP) services such as patent and trademark registry, domain name assistance and dispute resolutions. While still serving as the WIPO director, Dr. Idris sat down for an interview with Venture Outsource to discuss trends in the IP field.

Dr. Idris was first asked about what kind of patent system WIPO suggests to help the economies of emerging outsourcing destinations. He answered that knowledge and ideas drive economic growth, and thus proper IP regulation is crucial. WIPO believes that having skilled IP professionals and political and economic environments that support intelligent IP policies is absolutely necessary for emerging outsourcing destinations.

Kamil Idris was also asked about how globalization is creating new pitfalls for intellectual property laws. Dr. Idris cited piracy, counterfeiting and backlogged patent applications as the biggest pitfalls, and he believes that training more IP professionals is the best way to address this problem. The communications revolution, Dr. Idris further said, has made counterfeiting and digital piracy far more prevalent. WIPO has helped to tackle this issue through measures such as the WIPO Copyright treaty, but Dr. Idris recognizes that these issues will need to be dealt with further by increasing the global focus on strong IP policies.

Kamil Idris is a Sudanese national who has served as a diplomat and civil servant around the globe. He holds a PhD in international law from Geneva University in Switzerland as well as honorary doctorate law degrees from nineteen different institutions. He has served as the Director General for both WIPO and the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, and he is also a member of the International Law Commission of the U.N.

Currently, Dr. Idris is the President of the International Court of Arbitration and Mediation, where he utilizes his skills as a diplomat and an international law expert. He has published several books on topics relating to international law and intellectual property law, and he ran as an independent candidate for the Sudanese Presidency in 2010. Kamil Idris currently lives in Geneva, Switzerland.